BCM - How did your life change when you became a dad?

Alan -Totally for the better.  Andrew has brought us so much happiness - it's so great to see the little man smile and see his personality develop.


BCM - What has been your most memorable moment (s) as a dad?

Alan - I'd have to say that no moment was more memorable than Andrew's actual birth.  Going into that day, I didn't have any expectation as to what range of emotions/feelings I would have.  Little did I know that I would be gushing non-stop for about 30 minutes.  As many will attest to, I don't really show very much emotion, but that day, something hit and it was emotion/happiness overload. Since then, Andrew just seems to pile on the great memories.  It is so fun to reminisce and look through pictures and videos of him from when he was born until today - the first spit up, the first smiles, walking, etc...they are all great.



BCM - What has been the biggest challenge for you in fatherhood?

Alan - Just trying to juggle the daily to-dos of being a Dad and a business owner.  Trying to find time to fit it all in since I want to be the best at both.  Luckily I have started to learn to let go a bit to the bad stuff and mistakes that happen while at work when I have delegated tasks to someone.

BCM - How do you balance your work life and your personal life?

Alan - It's actually quite difficult - being an entrepreneur and small business owner, I find that my time is extremely limited and is really kind of a tug of war - my family is super important to me, but at the same time, so is my business - it is after all my livelihood where I am not only providing for my family, but am also responsible for all of my staff - it is everything that I do outside of being with my family.  
Being a business owner, work for me doesn't really have a start and end like it used to be when I was someone's employee.  However, I try to do the best that I can in trying to achieve some sort of balance and provide for both - unfortunately that means that I am always "on" and don't really have an "off" - I am always active and never really have any true down time.  The toughest part is that I currently have two clothing lines, Pencey and Sauce  (with a third in development), that are doing really well and growing very rapidly, so you obviously want to keep on feeding it so that they continue to grow and do well, but at the same time, I have a son that is doing the exact same thing!  
Despite it being hard work to balance the two, I now come home early-ish (for me that means 7PM) on Wednesdays so that I give Andrew a bath and put him down to sleep.  Additionally, each morning, I give Andrew his breakfast and play with him a bit before heading into work for the day.  I also go to all of Andrew's doctor appointments and try to stay involved as much as I can.


BCM - What types of activities do you like to do w/ your son?

Alan - Pushing Andrew on the swings - it's so cute to hear him laugh through his big smile, general roughing around, etc.



BCM - Which BCM event was your favorite?

Alan - Biggest Baby Shower Ever! The one where all the vendors came out to demo their stuff - I enjoyed seeing the security cam guy show off all the cool places where you could hide your nanny cam. HA!
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